On the 31st of March, 2020 the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe delivered an unequivocal judgement on the leadership dispute within the MDC. Among other things it confirmed the constitution of the party. It also observed that the constitution of the party had not been followed in the process of selecting the successor of our late leader and former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Dr. Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. It went onto reinstate the leadership of the party as elected in the 2014 congress in Harare. Two of these leaders Dr Thokozani Khupe as Acting President and Senator Morgen Komichi as the National Chairman were tasked to convene the Extraordinary Congress within 3 months and 4 months respectively.

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Pursuant to the court judgement the Party held a number of meetings including Standing Committee meetings and a crucial National Council meeting held on the 9th of May,2020. It also developed a road map to the Congress, crafted a budget, tried to source funds for the congress and contacted most of the delegates. Most crucially the Extraordinary Congress has been set tentatively for the 31st of July,2020. In short most of the constitutional requirements for the convening of this congress have been complied with. On or before the 30th of June, 2020 we will formally publish the date of our Congress in accordance with the provisions of our constitution. We should state that the National Council held on the 9th of May 2020 was called for by the Acting President, convened by the Secretary General of the Party and chaired by the National Chairman of the Party. This is in accordance with the mandatory provisions of our constitution.

One of the developments that also happened was the recall of 4 Members of Parliament. This is something that we had to do because among other things these members had publicly stated by word or deed that they had ceased to belong to the MDC formerly led by Dr. Tsvangirai. In terms of Article 5.10.a. of our constitution where a member has joined another political party then the termination of their membership of our party is automatic. Further in terms of clause 4.1.7 of the MDC Alliance Agreement each individual party within the Alliance has the right to recall its members of Parliament. We therefore exercised our lawful right in terms of the Alliance agreement. Aggrieved people have taken us to the High Court on this matter and this matter will be decided soon.

There have been a lot of speculations regarding further recalls of Members of Parliament. We should state that we are not a vindictive leadership and it is not our intention to victimize anyone. However we urge our Members of Parliament to recognize and discharge their obligations to their constituencies in particular and to Zimbabwe in general. They must also be cognizant of their obligations to the values of the MDC Party.

These values are summarized in Articles 3 and 4 of our constitution. To that end we view the call by some of our colleagues first to have our MPs resign from Parliament en masse and latter to disengage from Parliament completely as irresponsible and reckless. Zimbabwe is battling with the Covid 19 pandemic and Parliament as an arm of state has two critical obligations to discharge. One is the distributive role with regard to national resources especially finance. The other one is the supervisory role to key government departments and ministries.

What our colleagues who want our MPs to boycott Parliament is that the MDC should not be part of this critical supervisory as well as distributive process. This we can not accept as a leadership.

Yesterday a group of less than 30 people converged at Morgan Richard Tsvangirai House and purpotted to hold a National Council meeting. They came out with some communique that they have since published. The National Council of the MDC has about 202 people. In terms of clause 9.5.1 of the MDC constitution this Council is convened by the Secretary General of the party under the supervision of the President. In terms of clause 9.3.1(h) of the constitution the National Council is chaired by the National Chairperson of the Party. In terms of clause 6.4.2.6 of the constitution an emergency National Council meeting can be held provided that the President or a person delegated by him can convene the meeting.

Yesterday’s meeting was convened by a member of staff called Farai Chinobva. It was chaired by Hon. Murisi Zwizwai who in the 2014 structures is the Secretary for Elections. It had less than 45 people in it. It had people like Hon. Miriam Mushayi, Honourable Edwin Mushoriwa who were Secretary General and Vice President of MDC led by Prof Weshman Ncube in 2014. It was attended by people who had specifically publicly stated in court documents that they were not members of the Party.It could not possibly have been a National Council meeting of the Party. However by a letter written before the meeting I had cancelled same upon learning about it. The purpose of meetings like these is to disturb the processes leading to the Extraordinary Congress.

Since the meeting had no status we are under no obligation to consider it’s so called resolutions.

As the MDC leadership we are committed to the unity of our party and to work with all progressive forces force the betterment of the lives of the Zimbabwean people. We are committed to bring about political stability to Zimbabwe by removing politics of hate, violence, rancor and acrimony and replace same with the politics of rational disputation. It is critically important that the MDC goes back to its founding values of freedom, justice, equality, solidarity, Constitutionalism and respect of the rule of law. To this end we will want to play our party in crafting a national vision that sets Zimbabwe on a clear developments trajectory.